Summer is on the horizon. Your friends are talking about their getaways and how they really need some downtime. Rest, time with family, and exploring some beautiful parts of the world are all great reasons to plan now.

What about you? Are your dates approved, on the calendar, and locked-in?

Or are you too busy?

Here is some wisdom that I’ve discovered after working with thousands of leaders: we make time to do the things that are really the most important, but we still have to fight the tyranny of the urgent.

For some, just planning the vacation is stressful!

Planning, preparing and getting there can be stressful, but, the research shows that being on vacation lowers stress. I talked about that here.

So it’s now time to ensure this happens—here we go! We’re calling this secret operation: SCHEDULE and PROTECT.

The Super-Secret, stealthy first step is to put it on your calendar. I know, you’re not sure if you can get the time off or something might come up… that’s why this is so stealthy.

Next, manage your other priorities and tasks around the days or times that are blocked off. You do that when YOU control your calendar. Here’s a secret: if you don’t, someone else will!

1. Start Now! By the end of the day today, pencil it in on our calendar.
2. ‍Tomorrow morning, start looking at tickets or places to stay. I usually start with flights.google.com and Kayak.com, then expand my searches from there.  
3. ‍Plan your transportation details first. Once you’ve booked your tickets, it becomes real. Then you tell your boss, “I’m going to be on vacation on these dates. The tickets are purchased and I’m really looking forward to it. If there are important things that you need me to accomplish before then, let me know."
4. Time block your important work tasks. Getting your work done ahead of time is essential to resting. Here is a vacation preparation hack: If your vacation starts Monday, take off Friday at work. That way your stressful, crazy last day wilI be Thursday, and you’ll have a day to recover before starting your hard-earned time away!

A vacation that you can look forward to then actually get away and rest—it’s within your reach!

Dr.Rob

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